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Story behind the photograph

My wife and I went on a small evening walk along the Terrigal beach on Sunday night. It was low tide and the beach was covered in seaweed and blue bottles. This is aver common sight and we all know to avoid any contact with the long tentacles to avoid being burnt by their paralysing poison. What was unusual was the size of these Blue Bottles – the specimen in this photograph was close to 6 inches tall. Probably the biggest I have ever seen. Also, while the majority of them were just lying on the sand this one was erected upright and swayed it body towards anything that passed it by, in this case me.

Interestingly, the Blue Bottle Jellyfish is only called so in Australia and New Zealand, while rest of the world refers to the creature by Portuguese Man of War. I maybe partial here, but the jellyfish is not caring a passport, so why Portuguese, and it certainly does not resemble any man I’ve ever met.